The thing that I find funny about this whole brouhaha over religion is that religious freedom is an individual right. Religious freedom is not a corporate right. The Obama administration was asking corporations, not people, to cover contraceptives. They were asking that they cover contraceptives, not abortion. Yet, we had this explosion because there was a “war on religion.” Nothing could be further from the truth. As far as I know, you can still worship anywhere you want to. You can be Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Mormon, whatever, without the government telling you how to practice your religion. Jon Stewart had more to say on the subject:

Republicans, as usual, are trying to seize the day and the moment. Republicans are now willing to wage a fight over birth control. I wish them luck. It seems to me that birth control has been the greatest invention of the last 60 years. Women no longer have to worry about having a baby every time they have sex.

Mitt Romney is in a world of trouble. Several months ago, I mentioned both on my blog and on the air that Mitt Romney had a problem with the Republican Party. They simply didn’t like him that much. The fact that he was barely able to eke out a victory in Maine and the conservatives in Maine thought that Ron Paul would make a better president (he only lost by a few percentage points) should be somewhat disturbing to the folks who have supported Mitt Romney. The latest polling shows Mitt Romney to be in a dead heat with Rick Santorum in Ronmey’s home state of Michigan. Whatever Romney is doing to win this nomination isn’t working.

The Economic Policy Institute has clearly shown that public school teachers and other government employees do not have lavish compensation packages.

One of the ways that Fox news has been so successful is that they will say something that is so outlandish and so ridiculous that most Americans will ignore it. Then, they will keep saying it over and over again and, after a time, whatever it is doesn’t sound quite so outlandish anymore. Fox news contributor Liz Trottastated that women serving alongside men in the armed services should expect to be raped. Expect to be raped? What a reactionary moron!! I hate name-calling but I can’t think of anything else to say. Women should never expect to be raped. Never. Men and women in the armed services are expected to follow a code of conduct, no matter who they are, no matter where they are. It is that simple. Reactionary knuckleheads should not make excuses for people who do not follow a simple code of conduct and decency. I feel that I should smack this women in the face for saying something so over-the-top, but I won’t, because I too have a code of conduct.

I have wanted to link to this story for the last several days. It’s a story about the intern that was seduced by JFK. I simply found it interesting.

The chaos and violence are continuing in Syria. Russia and China could help work to end the bloodshed, but they seem to be unable to understand that it is possible that we, the United States, are completely right in this case.

A couple of commenters are confused by my position over the latest flap over contraceptives. My position is that religious freedom is a right granted to individual US citizens by the Constitution. The right is not granted to institutions. I’m sure that this clarification will make things perfectly clear. 🙂

Highlights of the Obama budget plan for 2013 can be found here. There are $350 billion in short-term job growth initiatives in this budget. I’ll have more on this later.

I was truly surprised at how Mitt Romney decided that begging was the right tactic at CPAC. Basically, he thought it was necessary for him to roll out a list of his credentials to prove to the conference that he was truly a conservative. If you are truly a conservative, you shouldn’t have to prove it. One would figure that a conference full of conservatives should be able to spot a conservative from a mile away.

Somehow, we need to change our jury system. We are way too influenced by eye-witness testimony, which can be terribly flawed.

A study of 2009 of sexually active American women between the ages of 18 and 34 revealed that 30% of them had put off a visit to their gynecologist or family practitioner in order to save money. A quarter of the women who are on birth control pills were not taking the pills every day in order to save money. Women need affordable healthcare and this includes birth control. It is that simple.

In a shocking study, 10% of physicians admit that they’ve been untruthful with their patients.

Although Adele takes the Grammys, Whitney Houston is definitely remembered.

The Obama administration did what politicians usually do, capitulate. Instead of standing up against the hypocrisy that conservatives were stirring up, the Obama administration decided to change their rules on birth control. The rules were already reasonable. There’s a difference between being a corporation in the United States and being an individual. It is individuals, not corporations, who are guaranteed by our Constitution to have religious freedom.

Greece continues to implode. They have to come up with some compromise or Greece will be plunged into financial collapse.

If Greece is imploding I really don’t know how to describe what’s going on in Syria. I don’t know why Russia and China are supporting the Syrian regime. It cannot be that financially important to them.

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Errington C. Thompson, MD

Dr. Thompson is a surgeon, scholar, full-time sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats.

A Letter to America

There are many books which have been written documenting the issues of the Bush Presidency; A Letter to America draws the reader a clearer more concise picture of major policies of this White House.